3225 Tasting Notes

February Sipdown Prompt – your most unusual tea

When you first become a serious tea drinker, lots of things seem unusual. After over a decade of exploring tea, not a lot seems unusual. I mean,meven if we haven’t tried bug poop tea we have heard of it, so this is tame by comparison.

I consider this to be an unusual tea because I had only had rice scented puerh before this, and several different brands of it. I didn’t even stop to think they might make other teas with the herb that lends the starchy, rice water aroma.

I have made note of this one before, but I want to add that the leaves are absolutely gigantic after steeping. I want to save a few for demonstration next time I am recruiting someone into loose leaf tea drinking from bags, “Here we have dust and fannings from the grocery and HEREpulls out a virtual paleolithic specimen – we have a fine oolong!”

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Lunch tea, enjoyed al fresco with miso soup. Followed up soup with a little Lindt chocolate for dessert.

Superanna bought this in Japan last month and gave it to me along with several other teas and I didn’t realize that this one had not been opened yet! I thought I had tried all of them but here are today having this one for the first time.

Water was about 155F and I made two steeps at one minute each.

Even though I used my finest strainer, the tea is just full of the finest little brilliant green particles. It looks brothier than the soup I am having with it! The tea is a nice spring green and the particles are a deeper (but fresh and bright) green. It tastes fresh and grassy.

Since I made a large pot and it is rather warm out today, I poured the rest over ice. This is super brothy looking with lots of suspended particles. It is fresh, grassy, and a little brisk. Good with chocolates!

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Sample Sipdown

Ashman and I had this as Michelle sent a generous sample that permitted me to make a pot and not a cup.

I drank only a tiny bit of it because I am not used to a lot of caffeine and I read that mate has as much caffeine as coffee. I will say that I didn’t get any jitters nor do I feel overstimulated by this, but it was a really small cup.

Ashman, however, had a mugful! He really dislikes most chocolate in tea as he says it smells like mildew to him, but he had liked the cacao nib tea from Oliver Pluff that gmathis sent recently so I thought he might like this one, too. It really does have true cacao flavor to me and not the artificial smelly chocolate. He did like this one, too!

Somehow the texture of the tea combined with the chocolate and vanilla gave off a little coconut vibe to me, but it was probably mostly creamy coconut texture rather than flavor. If you dislike coconut, you will not be put off by this tea, in my opinion. It was just a vibe.

Thank you, Michelle! We enjoyed it, and maybe Ashman will want to explore other mate blends for his workday breakfasts as a pick me up!

Michelle

Glad you liked it, and one of the reasons to make a Savoy tea purchase :)

gmathis

I’m delinquent, Michelle … I haven’t tried the sample you sent my way. However, as draggy as I am this evening, and with a 50-degree temperature drop predicted overnight, I may set it out to make leaving the house a little easier tomorrow morning!

Michelle

Gmathis – chocolate mate makes even the strongest cold front better!

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February Sipdown Prompt – International Quiet Day

This is a sipdown of a tea that was not in my cupboard, so I don’t get to see my numbers drop but I do get a little room and order in the tea box. I believe I had two sample pouches and this is probably the oldest tea in my stash. I believe it was acquired in 2017.

I went all out for this prompt because the rest of the day is probably going to be pretty active. I lit the sanctuary candle from Bellocq Tea and turned off most of the lights. I was able to sit in relative silence and I kept my back to the window so that I could focus on the candle and not be distracted by cars going by and such.

This is one of the better jasmine pearl teas I have tried. Teavivre is still the champion in my opinion and their Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearl is my favorite. This one is quite good even though it is an older tea and I enjoyed it very much. I would go so far as to say that this no-longer-available jasmine pearl green comes in second to Teavivre’s for me. It is smooth and sweet, doesn’t taste soapy, and doesn’t have the harsh edge that I have found in some.

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Sipdown

Rich molasses scent, awesome for lattes, great plain with breakfast or whenever. Would buy again, but I am getting out of winter mode and craving green teas and fruity summer teas already. I might buy it again this fall, though!

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Sipdown

No note from me and it’s a sipdown? How?

This was a lovely white tea. It is very floral but not as potent as White Wedding. I enjoy floral tea but Ashman doesn’t with the exception of jasmine green so it took me a while to sip this one down.

It is lavender forward and so relaxing to drink. Would re-order someday, as I liked both this and White Wedding which is exuberantly, proudly, ostentatiously bursting with flowers.

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drank White Christmas by Lupicia
3225 tasting notes

Sipdown

Would re-order. If I crave it before the seasonal set rolls back around I will buy Cookie, which is so very similar.

The baked flavor here reminds me of the deep brown, sweet and crispy edges of a cobbler, but without fruit flavor. Just the crispy pastry. Or maybe even slightly overdone cookies.

It is really good with food, good plain, and makes a great latte.

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drank Decaf Ceylon by Harney & Sons
3225 tasting notes

Sipdown

Definitely will re-order. One of our go-to evening teas when we want real black tea taste that isn’t washed out. We drink it plain but it takes milk and sugar well.

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February Sipdown Prompt – your cheapest tea

These Czar Nikolas teas shocked me when I saw the price for the amount of tea. I truly didn’t expect it to be very good, but instead the Nostalgia blend became one of my favorite blackcurrant teas. When this was purchased I think it was around $12 for 8.8 ounces of tea.

This is a tea for rose lovers, which means I don’t give it to Ashman! He did very much enjoy the rose/black tea ice cream I made with it, but he doesn’t prefer rose as the floral note in his tea. He likes jasmine quite a lot, though. And he loves rose lemonade so I dunno…

If I make really good progress on my sipdowns, I will acquire some more Nostalgia. It is marvelous for iced tea, too. My godson loves going to the Russian market near his college and they sell it there.

Courtney

Ooh blackcurrant! Added the Nostalgia blend to the wishlist aha.

ashmanra

Courtney – the one by Elmwood Inn is also soooo good!

Courtney

Ooh thanks for the tip! :)

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February Sipdown Prompt – a tea bought in-store

Sipdown

I didn’t realize this was so close to a sipdown. Most of it has been breakfast tea for Ashman on work days. It is similar to the Gingerbread Festival that we have on hand from Harney and Sons and I tried to decide how they differed. I realized that they differ exactly as the two foods do. Warm bread pudding is rich and sweet and you are really aware of the lemon and vanilla flavors. It seems like a sweet dessert by light in comparison to the Gingerbread Festival, which is full of rich, dark molasses notes. Both are great.

And full disclosure, this wasn’t bought in-store by me, but rather was a special request I made to Supperanna when she was going to be shopping at The Spice and Tea Exchange near Disney. I don’t think there is a tea in the house that I bought in the actual tea shop that sells it, so my choice would have needed to be more of a grocery store blend.

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Profile

Bio

I am a music teacher, tutor, and former homeschool mom (25 years!) who started drinking loose leaf tea about fourteen years ago! My daughters and I have tea every day, and we are frequently joined by my students or friends for “tea time.” Now my hubby joins us, too. His tastes have evolved from Tetley with milk and sugar to mostly unadorned greens and oolongs.

We have learned so much history, geography, and culture in this journey.

My avatar is a mole in a teacup! Long story…

Location

North Carolina

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